Interferometers are optical instruments to generate interference fringes using two phase coherent light beams. From the interference fringes, other information, such as wavelengths of the light beams used in generating the interference fringes, distances or small displacements, and profiles of the sample surfaces can be extracted. The basic mechanism of interferometers is to produce a light beam, and split such light beam into two separate light beams using a beam splitter. One split light beam is directed to the sample surface in the measurement arm and reflected by the sample surface to generate a sample beam. The other split beam is directed to a mirror surface in the reference arm and reflected thereby to generate a reference beam. The sample beam and reference beam are recombined together in a detector, where the two beams constructively and destructively interfere, resulting in an interference fringe.
Michelson and Mirau interferometers are typical interferometers currently used for microscopic analyses in many aspects of scientific and industry fields. Michelson interferometers are often applied to microscopic objectives with low magnifications requirements, typically 5× or less. For observations requiring high magnifications, such as 5× or more, Mirau interferometers are often employed due to their high magnifications (e.g. 5×, 10×, and 20× or higher). However, current Mirau interferometers do not allow measurements of samples through transmissive substrates (e.g. a glass substrate) that are placed in front of the sample surface. This limitation arises from the fact that the additional light transmissive substrates introduce extra optical-path-differences to the system. Such extra optical-path-difference breaks the coherence of the sample and reference beams.
However, many observations using interferometers require both high resolution (e.g. in the order of micrometer) and capability of measuring the sample surfaces through light transmissive substrates. For example, micromirror array devices are a type of microelectromechanical devices. A typical micromirror array device comprises an array of micromirror devices, the dimension of each of which is around tens of microns. Each micromirror comprises a reflective deflectable mirror plate for reflecting the incident light. The mirror plates of the micromirror devices are covered by a light transmissive substrate for protection. To measure the profile of the mirror plate surfaces using an interferometer, the interferometer is required to have both a resolution in the order of microns or less and capability of performing the measurement through the light transmissive substrate.